About this blog

Traveling is my passion. It's all about been there, embraced it and loved it. I always believe that having been to a destination and taken postcard shots of the famous landmark is never complete without a taste of the real culture and lifestyle of the locals.

When I blogged about being escorted in a convoy from the airport when in Nigeria, I was wrong. It is not a myth. Just that I didn't notice the security car which is following closely behind our bus (guess that's why I didn't notice it). This morning when I went to the airport, I took the trouble to give my neck a twist and saw, Lo and Behold, the security car tailing closely to ours.

My observation thus far. The "slump area" (not too sure if they are slumps area but they certainly looks like it from the unorganized and cramped space each houses has) is better than those in Nairobi,from the infrastructure point of view. Instead of zinc roofs and wooden walls, they are actually cement or brick walls and most has got a satellite dish attached to their roofs. Not too sure if they have the basic amenities like running tap water or electricity but judging from the existence of the satellite dish, they probably have electricity.

View from the roof top. Ikoyi Area

Similarities to Nairobi (through my brief stay's observation) are the Electricity supply and the Traffic!

Electricity supply is just like Nairobi's. Lights blinking on and off throughout the day with almost no occasion where one can have a smooth flow of electricity all day long. The traffic, is horrendous. Touching down Lagos at 9 pm, I could see from the plane on the congestion of some area...pretty terrifying I would say.

I thought Kenya was expensive until I made my way to Lagos. My friend has decided ahead to take me out for a sushi dinner on the Friday when I am here and told me that the dinner with cost between the range of 8000 to 10,000 Naira (Nigerian Currency). I almost fainted when I did the conversion to USD. The dinner could cost up to 75 USD.

For a normal meal, it usually cost about 2000 to 2500 Naira. A walk down the aisle of Goodies (Supermarket which the driver took me to) give me quite a good view on the cost of living here.

The story I heard about being escorted in a convoy from the airport seems to be a myth now as this cease to be the case. The street is busy with cars and I simply can't imagine if any hijack can happen under such circumstances. I don't doubt that the crime rate is still high but I simply can't imagine. Like a colleague of mine said, Lagos is almost similar to Jakarta (minus the modern shopping malls that spring up like mushroom in Jakarta). Where I am now, is far from what the news channel broadcasted. No AK 47, no rowdy soldiers and no violent crowd.

After a 5 hours flight from Nairobi to Lagos, the last thing I want is being held up at the passport control at the airport upon arrival. I was relieved when I saw the line at the passport control was reasonably short but to my dismay, they ran out of the entry form. Thinking that they will eventually bring us some, I was wrong.

I was so surprised when one of the passanger asked for it and was blatantly told that they should have obtained it on the air plane. The officer then instruct those we does not have the entry form to go back to the air plane we came with and asked for it (you can imagine the look on our faces)

I was dumbstrucked. They refused to process those who does not have the card and carried on with those who has it, which not many managed to hold of the entry form. When I caught sight of one of the officer roaming freely, I was putting up my hand and hailing him frantically to asked for it. He then realised that it has ran out at the counter and drew out a few copies which caused a slight chaos amongst those who could reach it.

When the officer who handed out the last few copies to us went to the officer at the counter (the one who told us to get it from the airplane) to enquire about the shortage, the poor guy was scolded for not doing his job as it was his task.

In my heavy frequency of travelling, this is really the first i encounter such an amusing incident. I guess, that's Nigeria for you...